“I really liked that Trump acknowledged that there is a big problem with the 11 million [undocumented] people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane”, said Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting.
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But following a Buzzfeed report that he told his Hispanic advisors this weekend that he would consider offering undocumented immigrants a path to legal status, Trump’s campaign is struggling to clarify its stance. During the primaries, the NY property tycoon promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico and to deport all undocumented immigrants. We have to be very, very strong when people come in illegally. “We’ve got gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country”. He said he would be more anxious about criminals and gang members rather than ordinary individuals who aren’t involved in a lot of violent crime. We have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country. “They are going to be out of this country so fast your head will spin”, Trump said.
Chen said Trump could theoretically maintain a tough-on-enforcement stance that might appeal to voters now skeptical of his harsh rhetoric by adopting a nuanced approach similar to the priority-based system unveiled by President Barack Obama in 2014.
He suggested he would use the existing laws followed by George W. Bush and President Obama to “do the same thing” and get “tremendous numbers of people out of the country”, adding, “At the same time, we want to do it in a very humane manner”.
His statements came in response to a Fox News question on whether he would adjust immigration laws to “accommodate those people that contribute to society, have been law abiding, have kids here”. “I’m not going to put them in detention centres. No”. “I’m not talking about detention centers”, Trump said.
“A balanced position for Trump would be that all illegals are always deportable at all times, but that the way you enforce the law is not necessarily rounding them all up and deporting them”, he said.
“And he’s been taking the counsel of many different people who tell him what is possible”, Conway said.
“You don’t have to put them in a detention center”, Trump said.
Others around Alvarez said they had been paying attention to Trump’s recent interviews, in which he shied from his more combative immigration rhetoric.
When asked if he had reversed his stance, Trump said, “No, I’m not flip-flopping”.
The Republican nominee then said he “would come out with a decision very soon” about deportations. “We have to be very firm”.
Illegal Mexican migrants were rapists and drug dealers – they should be thrown out, en masse. “I don’t agree with that”.
Trump even forced a change in the Republican Party’s official platform to call for the building of a physical wall along the border with Mexico.
O’Reilly asked Trump if he is changing his policy on mass deportation.
Clinton, who has pushed for a path to citizenship for the undocumented population, said in March that she would not deport children or immigrants without a criminal record.
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Trump went on to lament homicides, rapes, burglaries and other crimes committed in Texas by immigrants in the USA illegally, inviting several mothers of the victims to join him on stage and share their grief.
